May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). There are 219 days remaining.

1293 - Earthquake strikes Kamakura, Japan, kills 30,000.

1328 - William of Ockham, Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena, and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a sentence of death from Pope John XXII.

1538 - Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years.

1637 - Pequot War: A combined Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.

1670 - In Dover, King Charles II of England and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover.

1736 - Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.

1805 - Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Duomo di Milano gothic cathedral in Milan.

1830 - The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.

1864 - Montana is organized as a United States territory.

1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.

1868 - The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ends, with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote.

1869 - Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

1879 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.

1908 - At Masjed Soleyman (???? ??????) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.

1917 - A powerful F4 tornado rips Mattoon, Illinois apart, killing 101 persons and injuring 689. It was the world's longest-lasting tornado, lasting for over 7 hours and traveling 293 miles, spreading death and destruction along its path.

1918 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.

1936 - In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sat down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours.

1938 - The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.

1940 - World War II: Battle of Dunkirk – In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk.

1948 - The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.

1963 - The Organisation of African Unity is formed.

1966 - British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.

1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.

1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their second Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.

1992 - Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc. was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Adobe parking lot in Mountain View, California for $650,000 and is held hostage in a rented house in Hollister, California. The FBI rescues him four days later.

1999 - Manchester United win the UEFA Champions League to complete an unprecedented treble.

2002 - The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars.

2002 - Álvaro Uribe becomes President of Colombia.

2003 - Only three days after a previous record, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu climbs Mount Everest in 10 hours 56 minutes. The tourism ministry of Nepal confirms this record in July that year.

2004 - The New York Times publishes an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skeptism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

About The Author

Ryan Pratt is a typical millennial who wears flip-flops to work and is always multitasking. He is an over-indulgent technophile and Star Wars-loving cinephile. He is a creative and an innovator. Ryan has a specialized background in marketing and content. He graduated from The Ohio State University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and strong background in Fine Arts (Architecture, Art History, Cinema).